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2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the opening up of relations between Australia and the People's Republic of China. When he became prime minister in 1972, Gough Whitlam sent the first ambassador to China (Dr Stephen Fitzgerald), and in his term of office established support for artists' exchanges from the Australia Council. The Australian Ballet visited China in 1980, the first major ballet company to tour since the Cultural Revolution. The touring of China by Australian theatre, opera and dance companies has flourished since then, particularly over the last decade, and Australian spoken-word drama has featured in the relationship between the two countries since 1983. Since the 1980s, the work of the New Wave dramatists has captured the interest of Chinese audiences over a sustained period beyond the years of the New Wave itself. The theatre has, in some respects, provided a respite from the rigours of realpolitik and most importantly a means of genuine interaction between ordinary Australians and Chinese citizens who make up the audiences. This article documents the take-up of the New Wave drama in China, and the legacy of the relationships created in this formative period of Australian theatre in its international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs ethnographic method to theorise about the ethnic contribution networks enabled by major Australian political parties, with specific regard to Chinese Australian formations, and in the context of globalisation's impact upon 'de-nationalising' political institutions. The paper expands upon the notion of the contribution network by situating it within network theory literature, asserting the need for stability in the diffuse forms of resource exchange indicates that it is sustained by mixed and weak network ties. The character of the contribution network as a significant mode of political engagement by ethnic Chinese network actors, moulds participation in the political process that is both party ambivalent and politically apathetic. Its impact upon Chinese Australian political incorporation raises important questions about the role of progressive political theory, which through the politics of recognition has sought to legitimate modes of group representation, including clientelistic formations, as a means to enhancing the political inclusion of marginalised Australian migrant and ethnic communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims briefly to explain and evaluate Australian studies in China over the past 60 years. It will take up how Australian studies began and grew in influence, and a couple of the organisations that helped it do so. It discusses, in particular, four Australian Studies Centres (ASCs) with which I have had some involvement. Through the lens of these centres, the article probes the nature of Australian studies in China, arguing there is a close connection between international and domestic politics and Australian studies in China. Australian studies grew and flourished in a context, and because of, good political relations between Australia and China. This article also considers some implications behind establishing such an extensive network of ASCs and speculates on their future in a context of the current poor relations between the two countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surmounting the Manichean logic of the cold war, hundreds of Australians travelled to China during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, to act as eyewitnesses to the progresses made by its Communist regime. Although this phenomenon was the Australian counterpart to the broader Western trend of 'fellow-travelling,' these travellers were not simply intellectuals alienated from their societies. Instead, Australian travellers to China came from all walks of life. They travelled to China partly because of a national fascination with the most powerful player in Australia's region, and partly because of a determination to move beyond the ideological stalemate that had led to the Vietnam War. While there, Australian travellers actively curtailed their criticisms, inspired by a desire for international 'friendship' which was rooted in a tremendous sense of post-colonial guilt. Ultimately, this guilt led visitors to become willing agents in their own deception, rendering them unable to see the sophisticated government mechanisms which fed them fantasies of communist progress. Instead, the fellow-travellers propagated enthusiastic reports of Communist China, thus preparing the public for greater co-operation with the People's Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China looms large in the Australian imagination but, until recently, it has not been a significant travel destination. One result has been an imbalance between a superfluity of 'theoretical' knowledge and limited first-hand experience. This article investigates the relationship between the extensive popular 'knowledge' of China and the experience of actually being there in the travel writing of three influential nineteenth-century Australian journalists. Their accounts complicate any simple stereotype of Australians' attitudes towards China. As journalists, they sought to privilege the eyewitness. If their travels only confirmed what was already known, their 'on the spot' experience had no value. For the most part, they staged a narrative in which their discovery of the unexpected played a central role. This meant they had to construct a straw man of popular opinion, which they could then enthusiastically cut down on the basis of their superior first-hand knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]